The next morning Rose arrived early. Robert looked amused by her eagerness and watched her walk in, "twenty minutes early, very impressive."

"I just didn't think it would be wise to be late on my first day," she spoke quietly.

The corners of Roberts lips quirked, "do you plan on being late on the other days then?"

"What?" Rose tensed, "no, it's just…"

"Relax, I'm kidding," Robert stood and walked to the front of his desk to greet her. "I've got a few things to take care of at the moment, but I'll show you to your desk for now." He walked out of the office and showed Rose to a roomy desk just outside his door. "You'll probably want to set things up the way you like them, make it your own. Decorate it a little, maybe add some pictures of friends, or a boyfriend maybe…"

"I like to keep my personal life separate," Rose said and took a seat in the chair and glanced around, she never had her own desk before.

"Understood, I'm the same way," Robert smiled, "go on and settle in, I'll call you when I need you."

"Thank you," Rose smiled back as she got herself familiar with her new work space.

Mickey was looking suspicious today, or at least he felt like he looked suspicious. The sweat on his brow didn't help. He was left on his own as always, with a computer to work on and very little supervision. They trusted him, he had done nothing but earn their respect since day one and now he felt like he was betraying them. Of course, if he didn't help John and Rose, that would be betraying them as well. That's why he was there, for Rose, and he wanted to help her all he could.

He glanced around, watching everyone around him busy at work. Then he pulled out a memory stick and popped it in the computer. Within minutes, Mickey had several files loaded onto the little stick that he popped out and quickly slipped into his pocket, hoping it went unnoticed. Somehow, it felt too easy and that was a bit unnerving.

Rose tapped away at the computer on her desk, exploring all the new files, and was so overwhelmed that she didn't hear her names being called. Or maybe it was because it wasn't her name, Jack gave her a false identity under the name Belle and she still was getting used to it.

"Belle," Robert called again and Rose hurried over.

"Sorry," she stammered.

"It's fine," his smiled and Rose wondered why he was being overly nice. He showed Rose around his office, explained his schedule, and how to find his contacts for everything from colleagues to his favorite sandwich shop. Once he finished with that he handed her a phone, the same kind that Mickey had earlier, "I'm sure you have a phone of your own, but this one is for work."

Rose stared at the phone suspiciously.

"Don't worry," Robert said, noticing Rose's expression, "I'm not going to call you in the middle of the night to bring me ice cream."

Rose laughed nervously, she was more afraid of him calling her for other reasons.

John arrived home that evening to find Joan waiting for him as always.

"Oh good," she said happily, "I was just preparing dinner and realized I'm out of eggs, do you have a couple I can borrow?"

"I think so," John said as he unlocked the door and entered his flat, followed by Joan who invited herself in.

Closing the door behind her, she followed John to the kitchen, "you sure do keep things to a minimum."

"I don't see any sense in decorating," John stated.

"Don't you get bored, looking at these blank walls all the time," Joan asked as she approached closer.

John paid her very little attention, "I have plenty to keep me occupied." He grabbed the eggs out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter in front of her.

"My late husband was the same way, he passed three years ago, now it's just me." She paused as if waiting for John to say something then took another look around, "if you want, I could help you spruce the place up."

"Nah, I like it how it is," John shrugged and smiled contently.

"I see," Joan said, sounding defeated. She headed toward the door, "I should be going, but if you ever need company…"

She was interrupted by knocking on the door. Without asking, Joan opened the door to see Rose standing there, "oh," she said surprised. "Can I help you with something?"

Rose double checked the number on the door, seemingly confused, "I uh…" she stammered.

"Are you lost dear," Joan said a little too sweetly.

"Nope, she found me," John sounded surprised while approaching the door behind Joan.

"Oh," Joan sounded caught off guard as she studied Rose, she was in jeans and a hoodie, looking quite her age.

Rose stared back at Joan, holding her tongue as she watched the older woman judge her appearance. She knew she was young and didn't like people making assumptions about her all the time. Now the woman wasn't moving, just blocking the doorway as she stared, and Rose grew impatient. "Sorry but, can you move so I can go inside and see my boyfriend?"

Joan seemed stunned, but eventually moved, stepping out of the flat completely. Rose stepped inside and turned back to Joan, "thanks, bye," and she shut the door.

John just stood smiling with his hands in his pockets, until Rose turned around with a displeased look. His smile fell, "what?"

Rose crossed her arms and gave him another suspicious look.

John shrugged, "what?"

Rose exhaled, "what was all that about?"

"You mean Joan? She's just my neighbor, came over to borrow some eggs."

Rose looked puzzled, "she didn't leave with any eggs."

Now John looked equally puzzled, he turned around and saw the eggs still on the counter. "I guess she forgot."

"Forgot?" Rose repeated, then sighed, "she didn't come over for eggs, she just wanted to get your attention, and like every other bloke, you fell for it."

"I didn't fall for anything," John countered, "she asked to borrow some eggs and I was just being neighborly."

Rose's brow crept higher, "just how neighborly have you been with her, considering you never let me come over."

"What," John asked bewildered, "are you really accusing me of being unfaithful?"

"No," Rose sighed defeated, then wrapped her arms around John's waist, "sorry, I was just caught by surprise when she opened your door and talked to me like I'm some sort of child."

"Your no child," John said flirtatiously and kissed her.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Rose teased and kissed him back, squeezing his bum in the process. She pulled away and gazed around the room, "so, this is your flat?"

"Yep," he held his arms out and gestured around him, "like I said, nothing special. You can look around if you'd like, I promise I don't have any other women hiding about."

Rose gave him a playful shove and walked further in, gazing around the room. It was somewhat unusual, she couldn't picture John having his own place or settling down. Of course, by the looks of things, he had no intention on staying, it even looked as if he was prepared to pack up and leave within a moment's notice.

"Well, I'll say it's exactly what I expected," Rose told him as she wandered from room to room.

John followed, "what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing really," Rose turned to him and smiled, "I just don't see you as the type to have your own place."

"Yeah, not very domestic, me. Besides, why bother decorating inside when there is so much to see outside of these walls." Nervously, he scratched the back of his neck as he noticed the bed beside them

Rose noticed his unease and knew his reason for it. Sighing, Rose grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room, "I see a man pull a gun on you and you don't even flinch but the minute you get a girl in your bedroom you start sweating bullets." She stopped and turned to him, placing her hands on his chest, "I know you're not ready, although you have me questioning it sometimes, but you don't have to act like I'm some hormonal teenager who only has sex on her mind."

"I didn't say you were," John told her, "and it's not that I don't want to, I really would, really…it's just…"

"Just what," Rose asked once he trailed off.

John cupped her cheek and traced it with his thumb, her eyes gazed into his, caring and unjudging. At that moment, he knew he could tell her anything, "I'm not worthy of you."

Rose covered his hand with her own, "I think you're judging yourself too harshly."

John smiled and kissed her on the forehead, "I wish I could agree with you, but there are so many things I've done that I could never forgive myself for. Things you need to know before you decide this is what you really want, but I can't tell you right now."

Rose's smile fell, "why?"

There was a knock at the door and John stepped away, "because I'm expecting company, that's probably Mickey now."

"Mickey," Rose sounded surprised, "since when are you mates with Mickey?"

"He said he had a few things he wanted to show me," John opened the door and instead of just Mickey, Jack was there as well.

Jack greeted John then noticed Rose in the background, "we aren't interrupting, are we?"

"No," John said sternly and Rose felt a bit slighted by his reaction to Jack's comment.

Mickey brushed by them with him laptop, "yeah, well, I brought a few files I snagged off the computer at work." He took a seat on the sofa and Rose immediately came to sit beside him. He looked over at Rose, with a mix of regret, jealousy, and comfort, all in one expression. He shook his head and focused on his computer, "I'm not sure this will work, but it may help."

Jack took a seat opposite of Mickey while John sat on the arm beside Rose. Mickey loaded the files and pulled them up for everyone to see. In the file was a complete blueprint of the technology being used in their facial recognition program as well as the results from test runs at a variety of locations.

"They've been running several trials, recognizing faces of different people as far as a hundred feet," he pulled up some examples, "no idea why they would need it from that distance."

"What's it being used for," Rose asked.

Mickey tapped around, "we just help develop it, from there everything is sent to the 5th floor and they take over."

"Are you sure it's being used for the phones," Jack asked, "are they working on some other system for another purpose, maybe."

"They're designing it specifically for the phones," Mickey told him, "they tell us it's to perfect the security features beyond normal capabilities, that's all."

"How did you get these files," John asked.

Mickey shrugged, "I just waited until I was alone then copied them."

Jack glanced at John uneasily, "something about this seems fishy."

"You think," John said sarcastically. He nudged Rose to move and slid into her spot beside Mickey, pulling her into his lap, "any way of seeing what they do on the 5th floor, since they seem to have all the answers?"

Mickey shook his head, "they use a different server, there's no way to access it through our computers."

"So, we need to find a way to tap into their system," Jack said, "see if we can cross a few wires," he smiled at John, knowing he would find a way. John was a private man but one thing Jack knew was that he was also a man of many talents.

John strolled into the Sat-Nett building confidently, wearing a pair of coveralls, and introducing himself as a new member of maintenance. It was the best way he knew that would give him access to any part of the building without anyone questioning him.

He definitely caught Rose by surprise when he showed up by her desk that afternoon, smiling down at her, "hello."

Rose gazed into the office behind her, seeing Robert on the phone then turned back to John, whispering, "what are you doing here?"

John held up a toolbox, "fixing a broken light."

Rose gazed down at his clothing, "oh…OH! Yes, sorry, it's…um…this way." She led John into the office pointing at the fixture that mysteriously stopped working that morning.

Robert looked up from his desk, watching them enter and waved to acknowledge them, still talking on the phone. John looked over at Robert, then back to Rose, then back to Robert again. He hadn't seen a picture of Robert before and didn't expect him to look so well put together. He took a deep breath and began to work.

Rose looked over at Robert, still busy with his call, then leaned over to John speaking quietly, "do you know what you're doing?"

"Of course I do," John smiled, "maintenance, me."

Rose smiled and shook her head, "right…sorry." From behind, she heard Robert calling to her.

"Belle? Can you give him some space, I don't want to see my lovely secretary get zapped by accident."

John glanced at her then returned to his work, rolling his eyes in the process.

"Yeah, I should get back to my desk," Rose smiled and began to back away.

"Actually," Robert stopped her, "can you get me a coffee?"

"Sure," Rose said pleasantly then glanced at John once more, wondering what his plan was then stepped out.

Robert got to his feet and came up beside John, "are you new here? I wasn't aware we were in need of any new maintenance people."

"Just a temp," John said and freed the fixture from the wall, "filling in for one of your other guys while he's gone on holiday."

"I see," Robert observed him for a moment, "and you're familiar with this type of work?"

"Wouldn't be here if I wasn't," John told him pleasantly.

"Well, I'll let you carry on with what you're doing," Robert patted his shoulder and walked back to his desk, missing John's headshake with annoyance.

Rose reappeared, carrying Robert's coffee, and placed it on his desk.

Robert took a sip and hummed in approval, "perfect as always," he smiled at her and winked.

"Dammit," John cried out and Rose spun around to see him shaking his hand from a burn.

"Alright there, friend," Robert asked amused.

John sighed and nodded, "yeah, I'm gonna have to come back later tonight and cut the power before I can do any more."

"Well, I have a meeting at four, you can do it then," Robert told him.

John nodded and started cleaning up his tools, "four it is, I have a few other things to tend to until then." He picked up the fixture that he removed and put it on a shelf, noticing a case holding a figurine.

"I see you're admiring my Egyptian goddess statue," Robert said proudly, "it the goddess Neith, I was told it's from around the 3rd century, b.c."

John gazed closer, "too bad it's fake."

Robert approached, "I assure you it's not, I bought it from an authentic dealer who told me that it's a relic."

John shrugged, "he lied, or maybe he isn't very knowledgeable about these things. Look here," he pointed toward the side of the figure, "you can see were the seam from the mold had been filed away. Also, a figure like this would have been more detailed, not to mention you can see the bronze showing through in some parts."

"I take it you're some sort of expert," Robert asked disdainfully.

"Sort of, yeah," John beamed proudly, "been to Egypt, me. Even got to assist on an archeological dig once, not as much fun as they make it look on tele."

Rose snorted a small laugh and tried playing it off as a cough, poorly.

"It isn't," John said to her, noticing her amusement, "three weeks I was out there, in the sun, barely scratched the surface before I had to make a hasty retreat."

"I paid £5000 for this," Robert said in disbelief.

"I hope you kept your receipt," John said, but Robert didn't find his comment very humorous.

Rose couldn't stop grinning at John and turned away when Robert looked toward her. "Um," she said while inching toward the door, "I have a few things to finish before lunch," then she bolted before she ended up breaking into laughter.

John picked up his toolbox, "I should be getting back to work, I'll come back later and finish with the light." He stepped out as Robert still stared at the statue, feeling insulted. Walking past Rose, John flashed her a wide grin and she playfully shook her head at him. She missed having moments like these.